Military community uses Facebook to help Fisher House

Congress voted to restore death benefits to military families Oct. 10 but not before the Fisher House Foundation first offered to pay the families the death gratuity. Families typically receive the money from the government after a service member dies and it helps to cover the funeral expenses of their fallen loved ones.

In gratitude to the foundation, several military community Facebook pages started a fundraiser to benefit Fisher House.

Led by the administrators of the Facebook page Stolen Valor, and with the help of the admins of Awesome Sh*t My Drill Sergeant Said, U.S. Army WTF! Moments, Battle In Distress, Warrior Pointe, US Infantry, MARS Special Operations Group and several other organizations, the admins set up a GoFundMe page Oct. 9 with the goal of raising $10,000.

Two days after the fund-raising page was set up, they had received more than $7,000 in donations. And now about a week in, they are 90 percent into meeting their goal. The fundraiser will run until Oct. 19 and all the money raised will be donated to Fisher House in the name of the fallen and their families, said Staff Sgt. Dan Caddy, founder of the ASMDSS page.

“I think it’s disgraceful and a shame that the first people to be affected by a government shutdown are those who have fought and given the ultimate sacrifice,” said Caddy.

He said that by rallying the military community on Facebook, military families and veterans know they are not alone.

“You can count on your fellow warfighters to have your back,” Caddy said. “We don’t have to sit back and wait for stuff to be handed to us. Warfighters help other warfighters.”

We Veterans and warfighters are the first and often the only help we have in a country that is overrun with corruption and contempt for our uniformed services and Veterans. The facebook campaign is our ability to adapt and overcome at it’s finest.